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Review: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

When I started this book I knew I would have mixed feelings
about it, I already have mixed feelings about books tackling tough and serious
topics such as racism in a fictitious way. And as soon as I started reading
this book I got around three different reactions from people on goodreads,
people seemed to either have loved it, disliked it, or they were just curious
on what I would think of it.

Because of my mixed emotions and the touchiness of
this subject, this post will be a little long, sorry:

The Hate U Give is about sixteen-year-old Starr Carter, a girl who lives almost two
different lives. She is torn between the fancy almost all white prep school
that she goes to, and her poorer black neighborhood. The story really starts
when Starr witnesses the shooting of her best friend, Khalil, at the hands of a
police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Starr
is devastated, angered, and horrified when her friend’s death becomes a
national headline and people start calling him a thug, a drug dealer, and a
gangbanger. Even Starr’s best friend at school tells her that it was what
he probably deserved and that he had it coming. After it becomes clear that the
police have very little interest in investigating Khalil’s death, people start
protesting in the streets, and Starr’s world quickly becomes a war zone. Starr
wants to speak up for her dead friend, but her words could endanger her life,
ruin her relationships, and crush everything she holds dear… will she remain
silent or fight for what was lost?

First off, let’s get the content
covered:

There was a lot of swearing,
suggestiveness, crudeness, and the talk of how far Starr and her boyfriend went
one time. It felt unnecessary (y’all knowmy feelings about swearing and crudeness in YA). The first chapter was really crass, so much that I ended up
skimming it, since it takes place at a party (yes, that kind of party). Honestly, if you’re planning on reading this
book, I’d recommend just skipping the first chapter, since it really only
begins to introduce the characters of this book and the story really starts in
the second chapter.

Now, onto the rest of the post:

Obviously,
from reading what this book is about and the fact that it is all fictional and
only inspired by recent shootings and events, The Hate U Give is bound to step on a few toes, including
mine.And all though I liked it overall,
I only gave it three stars. One was taken off for the swearing and the sexual
themes, and the other for the fact that I feel that this book was missing
something… okay, a few things.

The first thing is Khalil’s death,
which is super sad, but I did have a few problems with how the police were
portrayed.

Are there racist police? If I’m
going to ask that I might as well point at a random Starbucks and ask, are there jerks in there? Because, yes,
100% yes. Sadly, the world we live in is broken, and everyone else is broken
along with it. I’m not here trying to say that there aren’t racist police
officers and that racism is dead, because, let’s be real; it’s not.

But when you’re writing a
fictitious story about racism among the police-the people who are in charge of
protecting civilians and deserve our respect and obedience, it’s such a delicate
and sensitive topic that I’m not sure if anyone will ever be able to write on
it perfectly with no bias whatsoever. It’s really hard for me even to explain
my thoughts on this topic in the book, so let’s just look at Khalil’s shooting
scene (warning for younger readers, this scene is a bit graphic):

‘The
officer walks back to his patrol car.

My
parents haven’t raised me to fear the police, just to be smart around them.
They told me it’s not smart to move while a cop has his back to you.

Khalil
does. He comes to his door.

It’s
not smart to make a sudden move.

“You
okay, Starr—”

Pow!

One.
Khalil’s body jerks. Blood splatters from his back. He holds on to the door to
keep himself upright.

Pow!

Two.
Khalil gasps.

Pow!

Three.
Khalil looks at me, stunned.

He
falls to the ground.’ (pg. 23).

This scene on its own wasn’t wrong,
but afterwards Starr really struggles with the fact that Khalil was shot even
though he wasn’t doing anything besides checking on her, she believes that if a
white person opened a car door that they wouldn’t have been shot three times.

Now, I also struggled with this.
Would a white person get shot if they did the same thing? After some thought and a few flashbacks to some news stories, I realized, yes, absolutely.

1. When a police officer asks you
to stay were you are and turns his back to you, he is exposing himself, and as
Starr said, it isn’t smart to move while a cop has their back to you.

2. Police officers deal
with a lot of mental people, every time they pull someone over they do not know
if this person has a gun or not, thus they have very little tolerance for
disobedience, because they never know if the person they pulled over is going to try to harm or kill them.

3. Khalil opened the door, and it
later says that he had a hairbrush in the door, which Starr and her family use
to protest saying, “A hairbrush isn’t a gun!” and while it’s not, if you’re a
police officer and you tell someone to stay put, but instead they turn, open
their car door, and you see a flash of metal in that door, what are you going
to think? Not to mention that Khalil was arguing with the policeman
beforehand.

Altogether, this is a recipe for a tragic outcome.

4. In the book Starr questions why
the cop had to shoot her friend three times, and why he had to kill him.
Couldn’t he just have wounded him? Yes, but no. In self-defense, you are taught
that if someone has a weapon and is trying to attack you that you need to take
them out, because wounding them isn’t enough to ensure that they still aren’t
going to pull out their gun and shoot you or come after you. If you think
someone is trying to kill or harm you, especially with a weapon like a gun, you
are taught to shoot to kill. It’s sad that such measures must be taken, but
with all of the high, drunk, and insane people on the streets these days, you never know what
people are thinking. The shooting itself wasn't a racial issue, however, the police officer claiming that Khalil told Starr that he was going to get him and lying to make Khalil seem like a thug was.

And I did take into account that
Starr is a sixteen-year-old girl, who just watched her friend get shot right
before her eyes by a person, who is supposed to be a protector when she knew
that he was doing nothing wrong. Her anger is honestly only normal, she saw
something that she felt was a horrible injustice, but I do wish the book had more reasoning on Khalil's death, especially because it's a FICTITIOUSbook, that is putting men of honor in this bad light.

I kind of
expected this knot to never be fully tied up, Khalil’s death would be written as
an injustice, and in a way, it is, as I said before it is really sad that the
world is the way it is, and that police need to use extra force.

A lot of people were saying that
this book was hateful towards the police, and after reading The Hate U Give, I really don’t think
that hate towards the force was meant, but I did feel like she accidently put
the whole police force in a bad light because that’s how Starr ended up seeing
them, and I was sad that it was never really resolved. There is a conversation between
Starr’s father and uncle where her uncle tells her father that not all cops are
bad, and her father agrees, but I still felt like two sentences of, “oh, wait,
not all cops are racist.” didn't tie it up enough in 444 pages of misplaced righteous
anger.

I say “misplaced righteous anger”
because I felt like Starr and her friends and family had every right to be
upset, but rowdy protests full of anger, fear, and hate is not the way to go, and I didn’t care for the positive light that
protesting was put in, especially fighting back at the police.

As for the word of discrimination
towards white people, there were a few scenes that were the prime examples of reverse racism, but in the end they did start to realize their
hypocrisy. But sadly, the fact they got offended with the white people when they made stereotypical jokes and then made stereotypical jokes about white people themselves really tarnished the overall message.

When I finished this book I just
sat for a moment and thought. A lot of my friends really liked this book, and
in a way, I do think that the heart of this book was in the right place, it was
meant to show us the perspective of people like Starr and her family. And I learned
a lot about how some people view the world, which I think is good, even though
I don’t exactly agree with everything, I can’t validly disagree with something
until I understand. And I think that this book was good for me to read, even though I didn't agree with the activism in this book, I think it's important to see how other people think. I am glad I read this, I really am. I may never understand the thinking behind protesting, because when has anger and hate ever solved anything? But it was good for me to read how a lot of people get involved in stuff like this.

But I just sat there, and for the
next few days I just thought about the biggest thing that I felt this book was
missing, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, until it came to me…

Unity and love.

There was some unity, but not
enough for the end of this sobering book. There was just so little hope, and
maybe that was the point, but I just felt that it was needed. I really wish
this book didn’t end in anger, powerful anger, yes, but where was the hope for more than just hate and hypocrisy? In light of this more depressing review, here are some great videos for the thought:

Whew!
That felt good to get off my chest.

Have
you read The Hate U Give?

What
did you think?

Will
you be reading it?

DISCLAIMER:I wrote this review because I had
friends and family that wanted to know what I thought, and these were my honest
and perfectly blunt thoughts. You may disagree with me, but any hateful
comments will be deleted. This is my blog and I have every right to delete your
comment if I need to, thank you, and have a nice day.

This review was so well worded. I still feel like literature like this is what drives people further and further apart, but everything you said is because you read it. I haven't and I don't if I will just because I don't want that negativity in my reading.

You were so respectful and you looked at it from both sides, something most people have a hard time doing.

I know some people might give you hate here or on GR, but just know you have so many people standing with you. I'm standing with you. Thank you for this amazing review. Have an awesome day!

This is one of the best book reviews I have ever read. Just... wow. I have seen so much about this book, and I never intend to read it, but your thoughts on it were very clear, and interesting, and respectful, and I just love it. <3

I've actually never heard of this book before, and I probably won't ever get around to reading it, but I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on it! I try really hard to just stay out of politics altogether (though it is useful to at least know what's going on in the world). I just prefer to stand on the sides and pray for everything. It may not be much, but I am praying to a powerful God, who can do a lot more than me.

Hmm I think I may read this if I have time just to see how this issue is portrayed. I mean, sure there ARE some bad cops, but I HATE to see all police portrayed as bad. And I want to see how it's done in here. I want to see how racism is portrayed. I heard someone say once, "there are 2 black people shot per week by police! That's horrible!" but what about those 16 other people shot by police a week too that are not black? Isn't that just as horrible? And how about those one or two cops killed per week in action? Who thinks about that??

Thank you for posting this. Truly I know and are good friends who are cops and its just like people... Just because some police officers are racists or just plain mean people doesn't mean all of them are. Just because the first few African American people you meet are mean doesn't mean all of them are like that. I believe that people are broken and sadly hate is all around us. Its not just racists but its religions. Its a battle of who is right and who is wrong and who is high and who is low. Good vs evil and unlike fairytales they dont end happily ever after.. This was great thank you Gray

You worded this review so well, Gray! I was tempted for a minute to say I didn't know very much about this issue, given I live in a different political climate (which is probably true), but I'm sure it is a book with a serious topic, that should be considered by all. I'm sad to hear the two sides to the issue could have been fleshed out more, but I understand how difficult that can be in writing. Thank you for being brave enough to share your thoughts!

2. thank you so much for this review! I've been looking for a review like this of The Hate U Give, because most people just say, "IT'S AWESOME," and leave it at that. So thank you for really diving into the issue and offering a clearer look inside the story. :)

I'm pretty sure I looked this book up on Goodreads, and the only reviews I remember went along the lines of "IF YOU DON'T LIKE THIS YOU'RE RACIST". So I was pleased to see such a lovely, well-considered and thoughtful review! I probably won't read the book, because of the content, but it was definitely interesting seeing how you've put forward both sides of the debate in a polite and respectful manner!. :D- Jem Jones

Thanks for this review! I haven't read The Hate U Give, and I'm not planning to, at least until some of the hype and craziness that's surrounding it at the moment wears off. Having said that, I sometimes feel that these sorts of books only will drive a deeper wedge. It's still using labels like "black" and "White" it's still "us" and "them". I also really dislike when people go on and on about the unjust shootings of black people. It *is* unjust and it is a tragedy when an innocent black teenager is shot, but it's also a tragedy when an innocent white person is. I also liked what you said about self-defence. I've often pondered that, especially when you see police officers being treated so horribly and harshly after shooting someone in self-defence.I think, overall, this book handles topics I don't really want to get dragged down by right now, but I definitely enjoyed your review :D

That's totally understandable, and yes, I feel the same. Although they can have a positive effect by showing different sides of stories, books like these have a habit of never trying to bring people together.

Self-defense is such a touchy thing because lots of people don't understand it. It is sad how officers are treated.

I can't blame you, it's not one of those easy books to read because of the controversy.

Gray, thank you so much for your honest review. All your thoughts are really well put. I saw this at my library, and I was sort of wondering about it, so I was happy to find such a great review of it! I agree that in this kind of a book, they need more unity and love.